Breakfast television star Kate Garraway has lost more than £100,000 of her own money after her online company offering cut-price deals failed.

The Daybreak presenter’s web business Goodypass.com, which appears to be still operating today, has been crippled by the economic downturn, forcing it to lay off 20 staff amid efforts to write off some of its debt.

High hopes: Kate Garraway with ITV weather presenter Clare Nasir and actress Gemma Atkinson at the launch of Goodypass.

Only last April, she announced soaring sales and pledged a slice of profits to charity.

But last night it was confirmed the mother of two is set to lose her personal six-figure investment in the firm.

A spokesman for Ms Garraway said: ‘Neither Kate nor any other director has taken any payment for over a year. Kate has invested substantial amounts of her own savings in the business and does not expect to recover that money.’

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Ms Garraway, previously one of the main GMTV presenters, set up Goodypass with her husband Derek Draper, a former Labour political aide, shortly after losing out on the main Daybreak presenting role to Christine Bleakley in 2010.

But by the end of the year, the firm had run into ‘cash-flow problems’ after promised investment failed to materialise.

In trouble: The website promised users discounts on restaurants, spas, holidays and salons

The 20 redundancies coincided with Ms Garraway taking over Daybreak’s main presenter role on an interim basis after the departure of Miss Bleakley.

A source close to Ms Garraway confirmed the business is to be put into a Company Voluntary Agreement, which will allow it to reach an agreement with creditors about reducing payments owed. The source said the presenter had omitted herself from the list of creditors to ensure others were ‘not left high and dry’.

A Goodypass spokesman said: ‘The company is still trading but it is having, regrettably, to reschedule payments to a number of creditors. Any purchases made now are totally safe and unaffected by these past difficulties.’

IS DEMAND FOR 'DISCOUNTS' ON THE WANE?

An array of money-saving and discount websites have been launched after the success of Groupon - the name derived from 'group coupon', writes Andrew Oxlade.

Like other disruptive web businesses, the U.S. company's growth has exploded.

Its sales climbed more than fivefold to $1.6billion in 2011 - but it made a $275million loss, an improvement from a $413million loss in 2010.

It floated on the stock market in November last year - four years after it launched - achieving a market value of $13billion.

The success of Groupon sparked a plethora of copycats such as Groupola, kgbdeals, Crowdity and Incahoot, offering money-saving deals on anything from hotels to facials to home insurance.

Meanwhile, other celebrities - like Kate Garraway - have tried to use their fame to make a success of money-saving. Michelle Dewberry, a past winner of The Apprentice launched 'sweet family deals' on likebees.com.

But a report out today in Australia suggested that consumers may be growing tired of group buying and more suspicious of money-saving offers.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that the research group Quantium, which combed through debit and credit card transactions of Australians, found a 34 per cent fall in group-buying transactions since last summer.

The newspaper's columnist Michael Pascoe said: 'Like many an internet phenomenon before it, the group buying outfits’ role as clearing houses for excess stock appears to have had it bubble moment and is now calming to become just another part of the retail landscape.'

Since a peak after floating in November, Groupon's shares have slid 30 per cent